Alert of 70 'fierce dogs' on loose in Daejeon turns out to be just 2

An emergency text message warning that 70 fierce dogs were on the loose in Daejeon on Wednesday morning turned out to be an overstatement, as only two small dogs had escaped from a local breeding facility.

At around 10:00 a.m., the city's Dong-gu District Office sent out an emergency alert message to residents, stating that 70 “fierce dogs” had escaped from a nearby dog breeding farm at 9:44 a.m. The message urged residents to "avoid approaching the affected area and evacuate to a safe location."

At 10:25 a.m., the district office issued another alert confirming that all the escaped dogs had been safely retrieved. It didn’t state how many dogs had escaped in the first place.

The initial alert shocked local residents as well as those on social media, with multiple news outlets covering the incident as breaking news.

However, it was soon discovered that 70 "fierce dogs" had not been on the loose, after all.

“By the time the fire department arrived at the scene, the dog farm owner had retried all the dogs -- two or three in total -- and everything was under control,” an official at the Dong-bu Fire Station told Herald Business.

The official added that the individual who first spotted the escaping dogs mistakenly believed all 70 dogs kept at the facility had broken free.

The escaped dogs were small breeds kept for breeding purposes, posing no significant threat to neighborhood safety.

The Dongbu District Office, as of noon Wednesday, did not issue an apology or explanation for the initial alert message.